Over the past few weeks, I have watched with great alarm as an organisation that occupies a special place in my heart, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), sinks into the abyss of gutter politics that have come to characterise our country’s political milieu. It started with the opening of a house built for a resident…

For the past two weeks, the nation has been mourning the death of its first democratically elected president and one of the most respected global icons, Nelson Mandela, a man fondly referred to as Tata, father of the nation. The grief that penetrates the atmosphere, like a coiling miasma, has suffocated the life out of…

My mother introduced me to civil-society politics at a very young age. Throughout my childhood, she worked for progressive NGOs that tackled social-justice issues. It was when my mother worked as the communications support officer of the South African NGO Coalition (Sangoco) that my passion for civil-society politics was born. My first taste of the…

It is a very sad day in the life of Africans when those who are tasked with the responsibility of championing unity undermine it. This morning was saddening for the delegation of South Africa that is attending the Land and Agrarian Reform Conference taking place in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana, a delegation that…

I am disturbed by Xolela Mangcu’s column in which he commands president Jacob Zuma to write a book within six months. He argues that it is Zuma’s responsibility to carry on this tradition of ANC leaders, all of whom have written a book, a journal or made literary contributions to knowledge production. This argument must…

The recent utterances by EFF leader Julius Malema that should the EFF become the ruling party he will hold a referendum for people to decide whether they want the death penalty reinstated, are reckless. They indicate to me that he has no appreciation for the historical constructs of this country and has not bothered to…

I was reading through status updates on Facebook when I saw one in particular that caught my attention. It was a photo of a DA billboard with lettering that reads: “E-tolls, proudly brought to you by the ANC”. I then decided that I’d provoke a discussion on my wall about what people thought of the…

Today I found myself nostalgic for a man I had little appreciation for while he was still the president of our country. I found myself missing former president Thabo Mbeki. I was sitting at a table in Dime Todo lo que Sientes in Mexico City with a group of young idealists who, like me, have…

My name is Malaika Mahlatsi, better known as Malaika Wa Azania. I am a 21-year-old woman residing in the township of Dobsonville in Soweto. I am non-partisan, though a few months ago I had a short stint with the Economic Freedom Fighters – an organisation I served efficiently in the very short period of time…

The question of why the poor who are always complaining about the ANC continue to vote for the organisation has always preoccupied my mind. I could never really comprehend how it is possible for multitudes of people who are being abused by the ruling party would vote it into power. I tried to rationalise it…

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Malaika Wa Azania, an AU African Youth Charter Ambassador for the SADC Region, is a pan Afrikanist Socialist, a feminist and the founder of Afrikan Voices of the Left journal, a publication of Pen and Azanian Revolution (Pty) Ltd, of which she's the Director. She is the former Secretary General of the African Youth Coalition, a pan-Africanist federation of civil society youth organisations in Africa, a free-lance writer, social commentator, activist and essayist. Above all, she's a daughter of the soil!